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by occam65 3651 days ago
That's a great negative viewpoint. Thanks for sharing it.

I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach.

4 comments

> I think you missed the larger point - that we can be doing a better job as evangelists of the industry, and broadening it's reach.

Humour me, why do we care to do this? The more people that think programming is magic and stay away, the more money we make.

Because a lot of outreach is really about saying, "you know, people who are just like me are pretty great."
Because "we" want to raise the standard of programming so "our" experience is actually valued? Depending how driven you are, you can "max out" a programmer career in 5-15 years today.
AMEN.
How is that a "negative" viewpoint? I see absolutely no negativity in that person's post. Is it possible you might be projecting something?
actually, i would say yours is the narrow point, and it's also a POV whose reach you are looking to broaden. The negative aspect of your POV is that some of us get tired of hearing it over and over (and I'm not picking on you, just explaining the different attitude) Labelling our worldview negative is also a negativity.

My goal in reading hacker news is not helping contribute blasts of cold air in order to preserve every little snowflake; but every little snowflake is welcome, nay, invited even, to read sober analysis of what processes are really going on. That's real math, science, and engineering.

I had to laugh the other day when I saw an effort to promote STEAM. STEAM? It's STEM, but including the Arts! OMG. Did we leave anybody out?

No, I got that point and indeed I do agree with it. In truth, I was just commenting on the title with the point that most everything is by chance - most importantly our very existence as individuals. No negativity was intended.
Just think how lucky that sperm was that made it into the egg, vs all the other millions.
That is indeed where the luck begins.